There is just something I love about the characteristics of French music, whether it’s the sultry, self-confident, inspiring sounds or the distant pronunciation of their vocals to the point where it sounds alluring or suspiciously sinister. To put it bluntly it’s never boring and should be championed for sticking to it’s guns and oozing creativity. With a limited knowledge of the French language, spotting the “oui” and “au revoir” can be a subconscious game. I also can’t help but use Air as a sound measuring tape for French music in the last 15 years. As French as Sebastien Tellier can be (sometimes sounding like his own parody from Flight of the Conchords in Faux Du Fa Fa in tracks like “Ricky L’Adolescent) his 5th album L’Aventura is actually about Brazil despite it’s name being confusingly similar to a classic Italian Michelangelo Antonioni masterpiece “La Avventura”.

 

Tracks such as “Ma Calypso” and “Ambulance Rio” contains Brazilian bird sounds and tropical instruments which remind you of summery sand-filled days which accompanied the 2014 World Cup (what great timing!) rather than drinking wine dans un Café Francais. It’s a very very colourful collection of songs, colourful like it’s album cover and it constantly interesting twisting and turning and occasionally ultilizing an orchestra to create a 1960s Hepburn movie soundtrack vibe in tracks such as “Sous les rayons du soleil” and instrumental opener “Love”.

 

The latter wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fleetwood Mac or Pink Floyd LP. It evens contains an epic 14-minute track that instead of being lethargic, remains eclectic and tricks us sonically into believing it’s 4 individual sets. Tellier borrows from every nostalgic source and indeed keeps his promise, and takes us on L’Aventura. MTH